


shake up christmas

by clairelutra (exosolarmoon)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Dorks in Love, F/M, Fluff and Humor, adrinette and ladynoir if u squint, bonding over hot chocolate at midnight, on christmas probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:33:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9051754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: there was a story that i was told
  
  and i want to tell the world before i get too old
  
  and don't remember it, so let's december it
  
  and reassemble it
A belated gift delivery turns into midnight hot chocolate. Ladybug’s embarrassed, Adrien’s a smitten kitten, and the holiday season is a time for memories new and old. Merry Christmas and happy holidays! ♥





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [knhknhknh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knhknhknh/gifts).



> beta'd by [mirth](), who was the g e n i u s who came up with the 'peppermint instrument of justice' line and i'm still kinda dead tbh. (also she beta'd this at 3am and i need her powers)
> 
> merry christmas, [ladriened](http://ladriened.tumblr.com/)!! i hope you enjoy this gift as much as i enjoyed writing it ♥ happy holidays!

_Tap, tap, tap._

The noise echoed against the cavernous walls of Adrien’s room.

_Tap, tap, tap._

_Was that hail?_ Adrien wondered, not quite asleep, but not quite awake either as he poked his head out from under his blankets.

Given that his walls were at least one-quarter window, his father had installed electric shutters just in case of such an emergency. But the activation switch was by his bathroom, and it was _cold_ in his room.

Adrien _really_ didn’t want to get out of bed.

_Tap, tap, tap._

But it looked like he’d have to, if he didn’t want to wake up with frostbite and a floor covered in broken glass tomorrow.

Adrien sighed and slithered sideways out of his nest, determined to leave as much heat trapped under the blankets as possible.

He scrubbed his arms, goosebumps popping up at the chill, and looked at the wall next to his bathroom. The switch was… Which was the switch for the shutters, again?

_Taptaptap!_

Adrien turned, confused. _That didn’t sound like hail…_

Now that he was marginally more awake, he could see that the sky outside his bank of windows was clear, moonlit and starlit — or at least as much as it could be, in Paris.

There wasn’t a flake of snow or a stone of hail to be seen, but there _was_ …

“Ladybug!”

The girl in question waved when she saw that she’d caught his eye, little more than a ruby outline hanging against the golden light behind her. Adrien’s heart lurched into his mouth.

He nearly tripped over his own feet rushing to open the window, the cold entirely forgotten.

“Ladybug!” he gasped again as he wrenched the window open, breath condensing in the icy night air and his pulse hammering in his ears. “What are you doing here?”

She was smiling softly, shyly, sweetly enough to warm him from head to toe as she held up a wrapped package.

“I, um, f-forgot,” she murmured, and the intimate volume shivered down Adrien’s spine. “I was going to give this to you earlier, but…” She cleared her throat and held the package out, pink cheeks darkening to red. “Merry Christmas, Adrien.”

Adrien accepted the package reverently, pretty sure that gold and jewels and godly favors couldn’t be more precious.

It was a box of middling size, with a golden ribbon tied in a delicate bow and Ladybug’s signature scribbled in black over the cute wrapping paper. Adrien stared at it, entranced ( _a gift! From Ladybug!!_ ), until he heard a soft sneeze.

“Th-thank you!” he stammered, belatedly realizing he was keeping them both out in the cold, even if he couldn’t feel it right now. “Do you want to come in?”

Certain that she’d wave him off and leave to go about whatever she had been doing before, he nearly jumped out of his skin when she blushed even brighter and said, “O-oh, um, yes!”

He stumbled back to give her room to touch down, stunned, and numbly shut the window behind her.

For a long moment, he just stared at her standing in his room, blowing into her hands and doing that little hop-wiggle thing he noticed her doing sometimes as she took stock of his living space. His mind tumbled over the possibilities of _Ladybug_ in his room of her own volition, with nothing to distract from him and her and _them_ , before he realized he was being a bad host.

“Hey,” he said, and then swallowed heavily as Ladybug took her electric eyes away from the upper floor of his library to fix them on him.

“Yeah?”

He rubbed the back of his warmed neck and shot her a sheepish, hopeful smile. “Want some hot chocolate?”

* * *

 

Making hot chocolate side-by-side with Ladybug was at once very familiar, and very much _not._

For one, while knocking elbows in the kitchen was a tried and true method of bonding, his overworked heart leapt to attention at every brush of Ladybug’s suit against his bare forearms, hammered in his throat at every mischievous smile she flashed him, and melted like butter over the fact that she poked her tongue out when she was concentrating on her work.

In other news, his partner was too adorable for words, and Adrien wanted a refund.

(Not on her, she was perfect. He wanted a refund on his overexcited heart, or maybe his hopeless crush — maybe he could exchange it for feelings that were a little less hopeless someday.)

There had been other items on the list about how the act of cooking with Ladybug was vaguely familiar while being absolutely nothing like cooking with his mother, but those reflections were lost to the flicker of pink tongue that snuck out as Ladybug attempted to catch a stray drop of hot chocolate from the candy cane she’d been using to stir her drink.

She caught him looking and froze for an awkward second, then tried to shove the entire thing in her mouth, looking faintly panicked.

Adrien succeeded in holding in his laughter for all of two seconds before it escaped him on a long snort, tumbling painfully in the back of his throat.

“Taste good?” he asked into the fist he used to muffle the noise, mouth twitching uncontrollably.

Ladybug sank in her seat, the tips of her ears turning red as she glanced away.

“De'i'sus,” she huffed around her mouthful, then pulled the cane out with a wince and repeated, “Delicious.”

His smile finally broke free of its confines, and Adrien hid it behind his mug. “I’m glad.”

She stuck the candy cane back in her own mug and swirled it around, embarrassment fading into curiosity. “You didn’t look at a recipe once — did you come up with this yourself?”

Adrien’s smile died down around the edges at the memory of his mother’s lilting voice, the individual words lost but the tune still weaving through his mind. He sighed. “I… tweaked it a little, but mostly it’s my mom’s.”

Blinking owlishly first at him, then at her mug, Ladybug drew her drink closer to her and took a delicate sip. “O-oh.”

“She used to sing a song for it,” Adrien admitted, his smile returning with a shade of heartsickness as he took his turn swirling his drink. “It was _really_ silly, but it made it easy to remember the ingredients and cooking times.”

He looked up to find Ladybug staring at him like she’d never seen him before. “Really? How did it go?”

He chuckled, feeling oddly flustered under the stare, and hummed the few bars he could remember. “It’s… I can’t remember the words anymore, just the ingredients, but it still helps.”

He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, and took another sip of faintly peppermint-flavored hot chocolate, avoiding his partner’s wide, soft, _warm_ eyes.

“How about you?” he asked when those eyes finally got to be to much for him (in the intimate setting, it didn’t take long). “Any important family recipes?”

This, oddly, got her to snort.

“Yeah,” she said dryly. “About a hundred of them.”

“‘A hundred’?” Adrien echoed, halfway to snorting himself.

She startled, then shot him a sheepish grin from beneath her eyelashes, flipping his stomach like it was nothing. “We, um, run a bakery. There are a _lot_ of important recipes to remember there.”

“How do you keep them all straight?” he asked, mouth running on automatic, picture-perfect casual like his heart wasn’t about to leap out of his chest.

(Bakery, bakery, Ladybug’s family ran a _bakery_ , and he was frantically storing that in every mental file he had. Learning anything about her home life was so _rare_ that he couldn’t help but treasure every little thing she let slip.)

“We all kinda remember the everyday stuff,” she said, hunching over her hot chocolate and blowing on it a little more. “But for the seasonals we have a book with the ratios. The everyday stuff is in there too, but, well.” She shrugged.

(Ladybug was a _baker_.

That was _adorable._ )

“A book of _secret recipes,_ ” said Adrien, resting his chin on his palm and grinning. “How mysterious.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes, setting her mug down with just enough force to rattle the untouched bowl of whipped cream set to one side of the table. “They’re not _that_ mysterious. I mean, mostly — there are a couple… Well, actually… there kind of _are_ a few… hmm… Oh, you hush.”

The last bit was directed at Adrien, who was laughing into his mug at her reluctant concession.

She puffed herself up and took a long drag of her drink, fixing him with a severe look that didn’t quite hide her embarrassment. “Look, we don’t push that angle, okay? We have pride that our work can stand on its own without any silly marketing quirks. We make _good pastries_ , and do _good work_ , and _stop laughing_.”

He pressed his hand against his mouth, knowing it didn’t nearly hide his grin. _God, why was she so cute?_ “I’m not laughing!”

She pouted, and that was _even cuter_ somehow. “Yes you are.”

He held his hands up in innocence, grinning even wider. “I’m not, see?”

She was right, but he wasn’t about to admit it.

She narrowed her eyes at him, which did _absolutely nothing_ to take away from the flush he could see building in her face. “Are too.”

He just continued to grin, because he really was, on the inside. Ladybug was much too cute for anyone’s good.

A flicker of _something_ passed through her expression, and then she reached out, plucking her candy cane out of her mug and swiping it through the bowl of whipped cream.

He blinked at the dollop on the treat, wondering why she was holding it like a weapon, and then it was racing towards his face faster than he could dodge it.

Instead of impaling him through the eye like he half-suspected it might, it tapped him on the nose, leaving its creamy burden behind with a stern, “No, _bad._ ”

Ladybug brandished her peppermint instrument of justice, frowning down at him.

Adrien gave up on trying to cross his eyes far enough to see the whipped cream. He looked back up at his partner, who was now standing and leaning over the table, and opened his mouth to ask about that 'bad’ comment.

She didn’t let him.

“You’re on the naughty list for bad ki— models,” she huffed, tapping the bridge of his nose with the hook of the candy cane for emphasis. “ _Bad._ ”

He just blinked at her, mouth silently working as hilarity bubbled up in his chest once again.

Another look of frustrated embarrassment crossed her face. “ _What?_ ”

Adrien opened his mouth and startled himself when it wasn’t laughter that came spilling out, but the truth.

“You are the cutest person I have _ever met._ ”

Ladybug froze, electric eyes gone very, very wide.

Adrien pressed a hand to his mouth, embarrassed himself, and glanced away.

_Oops._

“I, uh, I mean,” Ladybug stuttered, and Adrien looked back up in surprise only to find that her entire face had gone _bright scarlet_. “Y-you tha— Thank _you_ , I mean— I’m really not— I’m just kinda… I _mean,_ you’re much cuter!” The heel of her palm met her forehead with a loud smack. “I mean, you’re… you’re pretty sweet yourself.”

Adrien gaped.

Ladybug half-glared at him, apparently embarrassed straight into fury, and put her hands on his cheeks.

Adrien blinked.

And then Ladybug swooped in and kissed the whipped cream right off the tip of his nose.

He was still reeling, trying to process the gesture — sweet breath on his face and lips on his nose and had that been a little _nip?_ — when she pulled back, still half-glaring.

“You have something on your face,” she threatened.

“Oh,” he said, suitably intimidated.

Her face blanked. “I mean! You _did_ have something on your face, but it got me for you.”

Adrien blinked again.

“I mean, you got it for me,” she corrected, then twitched. “I mean, you got me for it. I mean, I got you for it. _I mean_ —”

She stopped, stared at him, then ripped her hands away from his face and held them high in the air.

“I mean,” she said, extracting herself from her seat with large, sweeping gestures. “That this-was-really-great-but-I-have-really-important-things-to-do-enjoy-your-gift-I-can-show-myself-out-okay-thank-you- _bye!_ ”

“Wai—!” Adrien yelped, reaching out as she fled, but by the time he was standing, she was long gone.

Slowly, dazedly, he sat back down.

He buried his face in his hands, nose tingling, and peeked through his fingers to stare at the half-drunk mug across from his own, his only proof that what he thought had happened had really just happened.

And then he remembered his gift.

It was a white cable-knitted hat, a white cable-knitted sweater, and a set of white cable-knitted gloves, each piece signed _Marinette_ in delicate silver thread.

(Ladybug’s family ran a _bakery_.)

It left him certain of only two things:

  1. That he could exchange his heart however many times he wanted, and this crush would never go away.
  2. And that Ladybug was officially _doubly_ the cutest person he’d ever met.




End file.
